14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
9. Shields First, Evasive Second
ESTEBAN: We are under attack! Stand by for evasive…
POOF!
Upon the appearance of the Bird of Prey Captain Esteban doesn’t call for evasive action, he says to stand by for it. Worse, he doesn’t call for shields, ergo the “lucky shot” blows him and his crew to pretty sparkles.
Granted, the Grissom is a scout ship and not a "starship" like the Enterprise, but even a scout ship captain should know to raise the shields first. Heck, on the original TV series the shields tended to snap on automatically when danger was detected.
Esteban is portrayed throughout as rather ineffectual. But to be fair, in the shooting script he actually did call for shields first:
ESTEBAN: Red alert! Raise shields!
SAAVIK: Captain, what's happening?!
ESTEBAN: We are under attack! Stand by for evasive -- stand by for –
You can tell this dialog was filmed because when Esteban says "Oh my God" on spotting the Klingon ship the bridge lighting is normal, but when they cut back to him replying to Saavik the bridge is suddenly at red alert lighting, as called for in the deleted dialog.
The film edit does him dirty.